Bill King: The primary system's broken

Updated 7:46 pm, Wednesday, June 6, 2012

If anything emerged with crystal clarity from last week's primaries in Texas it is that the primary system is horribly broken and the greatest contributor to our national political gridlock.

I could cite many examples of how the primary elections demonstrated this, but perhaps the most dramatic were the results in the primaries for Kay Bailey Hutchison's U.S. Senate seat. Three-term lieutenant governor, former Texas land commissioner and highly successful businessman David Dewhurst collected 44 percent of the vote. But not far behind at 34 percent was the darling of the far right, Ted Cruz. A lawyer by profession, Cruz's only public service credit is a stint as solicitor general in the Texas Attorney General's office. At 41, he has no business experience.

Cruz more than doubled the vote count of former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, who hailed from a distinguished business and civic career before his election to City Hall. If an objective person were to list the personal attributes and experience that would prepare a person for service in the U.S. Senate, Cruz would rank a distant third behind either Dewhurst or Leppert. So how does a lawyer with little political or business experience compete with the likes of Dewhurst and Leppert? The answer lies in our dysfunctional primary system.

Cruz was able to garner his support not through his qualifications, but through his message, which can perhaps be best summed up by his own recounting of his meeting with the editorial board of the Dallas Morning News:

"Two weeks ago, I sat down with the Dallas Morning News editorial board. Their first three questions were: (1) 'Is it good to be a moderate?' (2) 'Do we need more compromise in Washington?' and (3) 'How will you be bipartisan and work across the aisle?' At that point, I laughed out loud and told them, 'If you're looking for a moderate establishment senator who will be a bipartisan compromiser, working with Democrats to raise taxes, increase spending, and grow the debt - I ain't your guy."

Now it may seem counterintuitive that a candidate would ridicule bipartisan cooperation. After all, national polls consistently show that voters by wide margins want politicians to do exactly that. And when I say wide margins, I mean in the 60 to 80 percent range, depending on how the question is worded.

But Cruz was not competing in an election where all Texans vote. He participated in a primary where only about 1.4 million Texans voted. That is about 10 percent of the all registered voters and only about 8 percent of all adult Texans. Of the 1.4 million who voted, Cruz got about 480,000 or about 3 percent of all registered voters. But under our dysfunctional primary system, that 3 percent showing was enough to propel him into a runoff where the turnout will likely be even lower. The ability of a fringe candidate to compete in this primary system has been greatly enhanced by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to allow Super PACs to anonymously raise and spend whatever amount they want.

The Democratic side of the ledger in the senate primary was worse. Longtime Texas House member and blue-dog Democrat Paul Sadler was forced into a runoff with Grady Yarbrough. Yarbrough, a retired educator, has zero political experience or qualifications to be a U.S. senator. Yet probably because his last name has an iconic sound in Texas politics, he received 25 percent of the primary vote, coming in second behind Sadler. But that 25 percent of the Democratic vote only amounts to 128,000 votes, or less than one percent of all registered voters. So in the election system we use today, 4 percent of registered voters can put the likes of Cruz and Yarbrough in a runoff.

Hopefully the July 31 runoff will promote Dewhurst and Sadler to the title match in November. Both have legitimate qualifications for being a U.S. senator. But there is no telling what the turnout will be in the runoff. In those circumstances it is not inconceivable that in November, Texas voters would have to choose between Cruz and Yarbrough to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison. Either would be quite a step down.

But as awful as that choice might be, perhaps it would be the final straw that will motivate the voters of Texas to scream, "Enough," and insist that the state Legislature do something about a broken electoral system that has this country by the throat.